Peer-Reviewed Articles Supporting Intelligent Design

Peer-Reviewed Articles Supporting Intelligent Design

Intelligent Design: A scientific theory that holds that certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause rather than undirected process such as natural selection.

Intelligent design (ID) is a scientific theory that employs the methods commonly used by other historical sciences to conclude that certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection. ID theorists argue that design can be inferred by studying the informational properties of natural objects to determine if they bear the type of information that in our experience arises from an intelligent cause. The form of information that is produced by intelligent action, and thus reliably indicates design, is generally called “specified complexity” or “complex and specified information” (CSI).

On this page you can download an annotated bibliography of peer-reviewed and peer-edited scientific articles supporting, applying, or arising from the theory of intelligent design. You also can read a description of the intelligent design research community and its aims.


Submit a peer-reviewed paper for inclusion on this page.


Bibliography of Peer-Reviewed and Peer-Edited Scientific Publications Supporting the Theory of Intelligent Design.

Download the full bibliography in PDF format.

Intelligent Design Research Community

There are multiple hubs of ID-related research. For details see our Research Home Page. ID researchers have published their work in a variety of appropriate technical venues, including peer-reviewed scientific journals, peer-reviewed scientific books (some published by mainstream university presses), trade-press books, peer-edited scientific anthologies, peer-edited scientific conference proceedings and peer-reviewed philosophy of science journals and books. These papers have appeared in scientific journals such as Journal of Theoretical Biology, PLOS One, BIO-Complexity, Journal of Bacteriology, Journal of Molecular Biology, Journal of Mathematical Biology, Complexity, Theoretical Biology and Medical Modelling, Life, Entropy, Quarterly Review of Biology, Frontiers in Bioscience, Acta Biotheoretica, Biomimetics, Biomimetics and Bioinspiration, Systems Engineering, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Journal of BioSemiotics, Origins of Life and Evolution of Biospheres, Rivista di Biologia / Biology Forum, Frontiers in Robotics and AI, Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, Protein Science, Physics Essays, Physica Scripta, Encyclopedia of Life Sciences, Journal of Engineering Design, Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington, Annual Review of Genetics, and others. Collectively, this research is converging on a consensus: many complex features of life and the universe cannot arise by unguided processes (e.g., Darwinian evolution), but indicate an intelligent cause. This body of work also shows that intelligent design is a legitimate scientific field worthy of consideration by the scientific community. Many of these peer-reviewed pro-ID publications are listed and described below.

Despite ID’s publication record, we note parenthetically that recognition in peer-reviewed literature is not an absolute requirement to demonstrate an idea’s scientific merit. Darwin’s own theory of evolution was first published in a book for a general and scientific audience — his Origin of Species — not in a peer-reviewed paper. Nonetheless, ID’s peer-reviewed publication record shows that it deserves — and is receiving — serious consideration by the scientific community.

The purpose of ID’s research program is thus to engage open-minded scientists and thoughtful laypersons with credible, persuasive, peer-reviewed, empirical data supporting intelligent design. And this is happening. ID has already gained the kind of scientific recognition you would expect from a young (and vastly underfunded) but promising scientific field. The scientific progress of ID has won the serious attention of skeptics in the scientific community, who engage in scientific debate with ID and attend private scientific conferences allowing off-the-record discussion with ID proponents.

Selected List of Peer-Reviewed Scientific Publications Supportive of Intelligent Design

The list below provides bibliographic information for a selection of the peer-reviewed scientific publications supportive of intelligent design published in scientific journals, conference proceedings, or academic anthologies:

Again, for a more complete list of peer-reviewed pro-ID scientific publications, please download the full bibliography.